NORTH STATE DATELINES

Compiled from Examiner staff and wire reports

Published 4:00 am, Friday, May 8, 1998

AH: Man arrested for gay retreat slaying Ukiah One suspect has been arrested and more are being sought in the beating death of a Santa Cruz County resident attending a retreat for gay and bisexual men in Mendocino County.

Authorities are investigating the death of Louis Pearson, 44, of Aptos, as a possible hate crime. He was assaulted and dragged from his car along a dirt road near Lake Mendocino, sheriff's Detective Kurt Smallcomb said.

Detectives said the case may be treated as a hate crime, but that it's too early in the investigation to determine the motive for the killing, which also could have happened during a botched robbery.

President Trump addresses nation after mass shooting at Florida SchoolWhite House

Authorities took Rick Fernandez, 24, into custody without incident at the Ukiah Motel 6 at 1 a.m. Wednesday. Fernandez, of Calpella, a small town just north of Ukiah, is charged with first-degree murder and is being held at the Mendocino County Jail with bail set at $100,000.

Sprewell: No deal in

reckless driving case Walnut Creek Latrell Sprewell, the
Golden State Warriors
suspended guard, has rejected a pretrial offer for a 90 to 120-day jail sentence and will go on trial for reckless driving before a Contra Costa County jury May 26.

Sprewell's lawyer John Burris said Friday that the offer was "absolutely unacceptable. There was no flexibility in the discussion about it, so there was no sense in accepting it."

Sprewell, was the team's leading scorer before his suspension for attacking coach P.J. Carlesimo.

Police say Sprewell was driving up to 90 mph when he lost control of his Mercedes and rear-ended a car on Interstate 680 in Walnut Creek on March 1. Two people in the car were injured.

He could be sentenced for up to six months in jail if convicted of reckless driving.

Top court defines

Miranda's limits San Francisco Continued questioning of a suspect who asks for a lawyer - a deliberate police violation of the 1966 Miranda ruling - doesn't bar prosecutors from using the statements to show the defendant lied on the witness stand, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

The unanimous ruling did not go as far as state and local prosecutors wanted. They had argued that there was nothing illegal about police interrogation of a suspect who asks to remain silent or consult a lawyer, but the court described such questioning as "police misconduct" that was unlawful as well as improper.

That statement could bolster civil rights suits against police for Miranda violations, like a pending federal court suit that accuses the Los Angeles and Santa Monica police departments of systematically flouting the rules.

The state court said there was no evidence of such a police policy in Thursday's case, and declined to say whether it would change the result. Justice Stanley Mosk, in a separate opinion, said proof of a police policy to violate Miranda should bar all resulting evidence.

But the justices refused to give defense lawyers what they wanted: exclusion from criminal trials of all statements obtained by police in deliberate violation of the U.S. Supreme Court's standards for interrogations.&lt;